


The Family

by FelicityGS



Series: Space Princes of the Galaxy [13]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Family, Jotun Loki, baaabieees, jotun headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-14 14:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2194401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelicityGS/pseuds/FelicityGS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why exactly <em>is</em> Loki's ship so big anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Family

**Author's Note:**

> No promises on when there will be another of these, sorry guys! I've got a couple ideas to chew on and hopefully can return with a few more soon, but I don't have one written and ready to go up tomorrow.

It actually takes Peter a week before he finally realizes just how  _large_ Loki's ship is. Some of it is because he's used to ships being larger than the Milano, but at some point he's staring out at it while doing something else and everything clicks together.

It's  _not_ a small ship. Not even slightly.

But then he forgets by the time he sees Loki again; it's not like that's really the important thing, when he could be touching Loki, burying his hands in his hair. And generally just catching up on what he's been up to and the sorts of heists he's been pulling despite being a rogue Jotun in Asgardian space. 

***

"What the hell," Peter mutters the second week, suddenly realizing again just how  _large_ the interior must be. Is it just lots of smaller floors? That can't be right--the proportions are all wrong.

"Hmm?" Gamora hums.

"Why the hell is his ship so big?" Peter asks. "Seriously, that's ridiculous. And he doesn't even have anything to compensate for. If he  _did,_ he certainly wouldn't use a ship to do it."

"Oh, didn't you know? His crew are all Jotun too."

"Huh." Peter stares at it a bit more, doing some adjustments in his head.

***

"So Gamora mentioned your crew is all Jotun too?" 

Loki gives him the most unimpressed look possible, which is saying a lot coming from Peter, who has had  _years_ to catalog all of Loki's unimpressed looks. 

"Did you  _actually_ pay attention to those reports about my exploits, or did you simply say you did?"

"I did! They didn't mention you had all Jotun crew."

Loki frowns; they probably did and Peter just doesn't remember. Which Peter can deal with, Loki totally knows he has a bad memory for details like that. Incidentals. 

"Soooo...." Peter says when Loki doesn't offer to take him on a tour of his all Jotun pirate ship.

"You wouldn't want to. Very dull, it's just scaled up. Really, we're better off just staying on board the Milano." Peter blinks; Loki says it all with  _way_  too much forced disinterest even as one hand starts to worry at the tail of his braid. Yeah, Peter  _totally_ believes that.

"I still want to see. I mean, it's  _your_ ship. We always talked about this how many times over the years?"

" _No._ " Loki has a wild look to his eyes, panicked. Peter takes a second, then shrugs.

"Okay."

***

"Why are you sulking?" Gamora asks.

"I'm not sulking."

She gives him a Look. Peter huffs and settles more firmly in his chair, because he is  _totally_ not sulking.

"Loki won't let me on his ship."

"Ah." Gamora considers this. "This is important to you?"

"Hell yes it's important! We planned this together! I helped him come up with his whole outfit and everything, I didn't rat on him stealing the--" Peter pauses. The Tesseract, which he very definitely remembers from the Collector's pretty slideshow of the Infinity Gems. Which Loki still has, unless he pawned it, but...

Gamora has an eyebrow raised. Peter shakes his head.

"It was a job. He took what we were transporting. That's it." Gamora doesn't look like she believes him, but Peter is  _totally_ not telling anyone that Loki stole the Tesseract--especially not if he still has it. "Which isn't the point. That's practically our baby out there, and he's not letting me on board."

"He likely has his reasons." 

Gamora doesn't get it. Of course not. Peter shakes his head, sinking back into his chair. 

***

Peter's  _almost_ gotten over the fact that Loki won't let him on the ship when Loki gets a message from them that they need him on board--some sort of communication they're getting. Peter just happens to be with him when Loki gets the message and follows him all the way to the deck.

"I don't want to go or anything. I should just make sure you know the way."

Loki rolls his eyes, but he's been checking his appearance in every reflective surface on the way; whoever it is, they must be important. 

"Just stay out of the way," Loki says, grabbing him by the wrist, and then they just--

They're just on the bridge of the other ship. There's no weird transporter sickness, none of that being hurled through the air nonsense. They're just there. Peter glances at Loki wide-eyed, still trying to figure out what happened. Loki's talking to someone in Jotnar too fast; the translator is nearly choking on itself, spitting up vague emotion words every now and then, but Jotnar's complex at the best of times--there's a reason that Jotun are one of the few space-faring races that bother with learning another language. He looks to see who Loki is talking to--then looks up. And up some more.

Turns out that Jotun  _are_ big, and it wasn't just his kid memory playing tricks on him. Wow.

"He's going to show you around," Loki says as he fusses with his hair some more. "Byleist, this is Peter. Peter, Byleist."

Peter grins and gives a little wave. Byleist just shakes his head and gestures for Peter to follow him-- _seriously_ , this guy has to be the biggest Jotun he's ever seen. Do the big ones just not travel off world?

Byleist waits until they're in one of the halls-- _seriously_ , a game of football could go on in here--before speaking. 

"Loki speaks well of you." It doesn't  _sound_ neutral the way that Byleist says it. It vibrates Peter's teeth and make Drax sound like a soprano, but it also sounds like he's  _judging_ Peter. Which Peter has  _zero_ time for.

"Yeah, well, we grew up together." They pass a few other Jotun, who don't even glance at Peter. On the other hand, all of them are shorter and smaller than Byleist, so that's worth something. "He's wanted to be a pirate for basically ever. I taught him most of what he knows, looked out for him--"

"I am aware he is your ammul; you do not need to posture," Byleist interrupts. Peter glances up, but his face is blank. Or maybe it's not? Is Loki just more physically emotive than other Jotun. This is honestly not half so cool as Peter was hoping; he's barely paying attention to the ship because he's more worried about trying to deal with this jerk.

"So how'd you meet?" Peter asks instead of pointing out that Byleist is the one judging him.

"He is my sib." Byleist glances down at him.

"Oh." Peter glances around as they pass into another corridor, this one close to the kitchen if the smell is anything to go by, before that registers. "Wait,  _what_?"

***

Turns out at least half the crew is related to Loki--either closely, like Byleist, or tangentially through family lines that Peter suspects he wouldn't be able to make sense of even with a chart. The other half all wanted in on what Loki had proposed, when he proposed the venture. While none of the Jotun had known they were becoming pirates, none of them minded either. 

"What else were we going to be?" Byleist asks. "In Asgardian space, we are hated. Few of us have ever seen anything but Jotunheim. When Loki returned, he brought opportunity and hope we have not had in too long."

"Yeah, about that--how do you know he's who he says he is?"

Byleist looks at him; Peter hadn't really seen the family resemblance before, but now it's glaring--Loki's given him that exact same look more times than he can count.

"Kyne lines."

"Oh." Right. He should have realized. Now that he's looking, it's not too hard to pick out how Byleist compare to Loki's. Realizing that Byleist is still looking at him oddly, with a touch of brotherly disapproval, he adds, "Loki never talked to me about these things, and Jotnar is hard."

Byleist just shakes his head.

***

When they eventually make their way back to the bridge, Peter has learned more incidental things about Jotun than he can remember. Mostly because Byleist had decided that Loki not telling him meant that it was Byleist's job to fill Peter in. 

Loki is... in his element, really. In his element and so obviously not quite the same that Peter realizes, for the first time, that Loki's never going to come off as native on his own planet. It's not his appearance so much as  _him_ \--he carries himself differently, body language and facial expressions exaggerated next to that of his crew. He  _moves_ more than them, almost flighty. Peter knows it might just be a sonuja thing, but he suspects it's not.

Loki moves and acts like a Jotun raised with traders--with people like Peter and Yondu and even Rocket, who don't  _have_ the benefit of a language that does the same work their expressions do. 

No wonder most people find Jotun cold.

"Does he do okay?" Peter asks. "Does he manage to sleep? How does he..."

Byleist glances down at him; for the first time, Peter doesn't feel like he's being quietly judged for his questions. At least not in a bad way.

"We are all indebted to him. He has shown us much we would not have seen, given us new ways to look at the universe we did not possess. He is different; Jotunheim needs different. He is well; we do what we can to ensure this. He does sleep, though not as much as he would if you were here." Byleist offers a small smile. "I, at least, am glad you let him to go."

Loki turns, like he realizes he's being talked about, quirking an eyebrow at them. His eyes land on Peter and he lights up with a wide grin; Peter finds himself smiling back.

"What do you think?" Loki asks.

Peter gives him a thumbs up. Loki preens, twining his braid around one hand, before his attention is caught by another Jotun and he's off again. Next to Peter, Byleist chuckles.

"That's good. This is good." Peter glances at him. "I'm glad things went well with you guys."

Byleist shrugs.

"He's family."

 ***

"What did you actually think?" Loki asks, when Peter and he go back to the Milano.

"It's great. Really. I'm really happy for you."

Loki studies him. Peter just smiles at him, because he  _is_ happy for Loki. When they part ways again--hopefully not for a year this time--it's going to make missing him that much easier. Loki's happy with his crew, _family_ ; Peter can't think of anywhere he'd feel okay with Loki being but these people who so clearly care about their slightly odd captain and prince.  _  
_

"Good," Loki says. "Now where did Rocket go? He wanted some things."

Peter eyes the bag Loki has and lets go of him so he doesn't risk accidentally blowing them both up. Loki just laughs before he starts down the hallway to look for the racoon. 

 


End file.
